Grand Valley State deserves credit for not folding during tough times of Division II title game

FLORENCE, Ala. -- Championship heart doesn't always translate to championship trophies. Grand Valley State's football program certainly has its share of the latter, and in a rare year when it lost an NCAA Division II title game, it demonstrated more of the former than ever before.

Everyone understands the desire to win. It is part of our societal fabric. If you didn't win, you lost. For simple folks with black-and-white viewpoints, Grand Valley came up short in a 30-23 loss to Northwest Missouri State in Saturday's national championship game.

The Lakers lost.

They weren't losers.

Oh, they could have been. They had every opportunity to roll over like whipped dogs when it was 21-0 at halftime, the defense was halting and passive, the offense left plays unexecuted, the trainer's table looked like an emergency ward, and the national championship seemed a distant and cruel dream.

Marvin Gentry | Special to The Grand Rapids PressGrand Valley State coach Chuck Martin talks with Blake Smolen on the sideline during the Division II national championship game.They were really bad in the first half, against a really fine team -- a terrible combination.

Beyond that, they suffered even more personnel losses, for a team that lost more than one-third of its starters to injuries and suspensions this year.

Jay Jandasek, a sophomore, pressed into both place-kicking and punting duties because of a groin injury to Justin Trumble, blasted his only punt 71 yards, a new Division II title game record. The kick flipped field position so effectively that the Lakers got the ball back at midfield moments later, then drove for a touchdown to draw within 23-13.

Chris Crawford, a freshman from Muskegon, stepped in at cornerback after Enrique Shaw was injured late in the first half, and forced a fumble to stop a Northwest Missouri drive.

NW MISSOURI 30, GVSU 23

KEY PLAYThe Lakers drew within 23-20 and were one play from getting the ball back with a chance to take the lead after forcing the Bearcats to a fourth-and-four at GVSU’s 26-yard line. But Blake Bolles, the Northwest Missouri quarterback, dropped back and saw his favorite target, Jake Soy, isolated in man coverage against safety Jacob McGuckin. Soy caught the pass and tumbled into the end zone for the touchdown and a 30-20 lead with 10:00 remaining.

THE A-TEAMNorthwest Missouri’s running backs, led by LaRon Council, gashed the Lakers’ defense for an average of 7.1 yards per carry on 25 attempts. Council had 22 carries for 172 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Jordan Simmons added two carries for 16 yards.

THE BUZZFor the ninth consecutive year, the Division II title game was decided by seven or fewer points. Northwest Missouri had been on the bad end of four consecutive heartbreaks -- including losses to Grand Valley in 2005 and 2006 -- before breaking through with its third championship victory.

Eleven plays and 71 yards later, the Lakers drew within 23-20.

"You go to practice, maybe you know that you're not going to play a lot, you might just get those select few plays," Crawford said. "But when you get in, you have to be prepared and just be one-eleventh of the team, and that's what I tried to do. We didn't get the win but we came together as a team when people went down. We trusted each other, so we never had doubt. We kept fighting. That's all we could do is keep fighting."

There were others.

Ryan Pettis, another freshman, was called upon when standout defensive end Danny Richard went down with a late knee injury.

Israel Woolfork, yet another freshman, made a diving catch on third-and-long for a 35-yard gain to set up Jandasek's field goal with 4:26 remaining, pulling the Lakers within 30-23.

On the sideline, coach Chuck Martin marveled.

"I said to the offensive guys, 'Oh my goodness, we're getting stops out there, we've got Pettis out there, we've got Crawford out there' -- we've got guys that you would never imagine, at the beginning of the season, would be playing in the national championship game, unless the game was one-sided, one way or the other," Martin said.

Not only did they play, they made plays that quite nearly spawned incredible victory.

The Lakers pursued a timeless triumph over time, which taunted and teased them throughout the second half. In the end, time won. As always.

As much as any two plays can be cited as the difference, the game came down to a blocked conversion kick that Northwest Missouri returned for two points -- a three-point swing -- and a gutsy fourth-down touchdown pass for the Bearcats' final points.

Hopefully, they also remember the perseverance that makes college athletics the meaningful teaching tool it is supposed to be, which was the real lesson of a lost game, but a spiritual triumph.

At one point in the second half, Martin recalled shaking his head and thinking “This is unreal, the guys we’ve got out there.”

“What our kids have done, and what our assistants have done this year, it's hard for me to be down,” he said. “It really is. They've exceeded my expectations. And I think people around me know my expectations are pretty high."